A Letter of Approval (LOA) must be submitted to the Ordination Council for candidates seeking ordination, and for ministers who are renewing their ordination. In both cases, the rules for and content of the LOA are the same.
LOAs may be submitted by any ordained Minister of Satan who has an official leadership position in The Satanic Temple. The minister must be in good standing (i.e. their ordination must not be suspended or expired), and their leadership role must be current and active (i.e. they must not be nominees or former leadership). LOAs are usually written by Congregation Heads or Campaign Directors. Additionally,
- The Executive Ministry MAY write LOAs, but we strongly discourage candidates from approaching them for an LOA if any other options are available.
- Members of the Suryan Council, the Ordination Council, and SatanOps MAY NOT write LOAs. (Some of these groups were allowed to write LOAs during the “first wave” of ordination, but are no longer eligible as of June 2022)
- Society of Congregations Committee members who are ordained ministers MAY NOT write LOAs if their only leadership position is being on the committee. Committee members may write LOAs if they qualify through other roles, for example: If you are both on a Commitee and are a Congregation Head, then you are eligible to write an LOA because you are a Congregation Head. However, simply being on an SoC Committee is not sufficient by itself for you to be eligible.
- Candidate Group Facilitators MAY NOT write LOAs, although they may work together with a minister who is eligible to write a joint letter (where the minister in leadership writes an LOA that includes and endorses a statement from the facilitator who has the first-hand working relationship with the candidate).
For more information about the rationale behind the LOAs, and who is eligible to write an LOA, please see: Why do you require a “Letter of Approval” from an ordained member of leadership?
Keep in mind that being eligible to write an LOA for a candidate is not the same as being obligated to write an LOA. If you are being asked to write an LOA, please review the Approval Letter Guidelines for instructions on when to write an LOA and what to write. If you are a candidate asking a minister for an LOA, be considerate and remember that if a minister tells you they are not able to write your LOA, continuing to pressure or pester them could be grounds for immediate rejection from the ordination program.